JPH04238080A - Printing control of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the printing time of a printer. CONSTITUTION:First the width of a recording sheet is detected by a sensor 3. Data is printed in a printing area defined in accordance with the length of the recording sheet without detection of the presence of the recording sheet. In addition, the sheet is discharged after interpretation of the end of printing in the printing area.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control method for a printer.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are printers equipped with a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of paper in the carriage of a print head. This type of printer prints according to a print format that is manually set in advance, determines the presence or absence of recording paper at each line feed, and stops printing when it determines that there is no paper, and ejects the paper. .

0003

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The conventional printer described above has the trouble of having to manually set a print format according to the size of recording paper before printing. Furthermore, since the presence or absence of recording paper is determined for each line feed, the printing time increases accordingly.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing control method for a printer that can shorten printing time.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention detects the width of the recording paper using a sensor, sets a printing area according to the length of the recording paper, and then executes printing in the set printing area, The above-mentioned problem is solved by ejecting the paper after determining the end of printing within the above-mentioned print area.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the main parts of the printer. In the figure, 1 is a control circuit that controls the overall operation of the printer, 2 is a printing section consisting of a print head, a carrier, etc., and 3 is a sensor for detecting the recording paper width, which is mounted on the carrier. As this sensor, an optical sensor or the like consisting of a light emitting element and a light receiving element is used. Reference numeral 4 denotes a print format storage unit storing print format data corresponding to the recording paper width; 5 a determination circuit for determining whether or not the printing by the printing unit 2 exceeds the set printing area; This is a position storage unit that stores the left end position.

Next, according to the flowchart in FIG.
The printing operation from suction to ejection of recording paper will be explained.

First, in response to a recording paper suction command, the recording paper is sucked to a predetermined position, and the sensor 3 is placed at a predetermined position where the recording paper can be detected, for example, at the center (step A).

Next, the sensor 3 is moved from the predetermined position to the home position (step B).

By this movement, the position of the sensor 3 when the sensor 3 detects a change from paper presence to paper absence, that is, the left end position of the recording paper, is stored in the position storage section 6 (step C).

When the movement of the sensor 3 is completed, the position storage unit 6 is moved based on the print format data in the print format storage unit 4.
Set the print format corresponding to the left edge position of the paper stored in .

In this example, if the left edge position is determined to be letter paper, the paper length is set to 11 inches (step D), and if it is determined to be A4 paper, the paper length is set to 297 mm. (Step E), and if it is determined that the paper is B5, the paper length is set to 257 mm (Step F).

Next, the printing format, such as the number of lines to be printed, is set based on the determined paper size (step G).

[0015] When the setting of the print format is completed, printing is performed based on the setting. During printing, the sensor 3 does not detect the presence or absence of paper, and the determination circuit 5 determines whether or not the set number of print lines has been exceeded. When the number of printed lines reaches the set value, a print completion determination is issued, printing is stopped, and the recording paper is ejected (step H).

[0016] Through the above operations, the print format is set and printing is performed.

In the above embodiment, when detecting the left edge position of the recording paper, the sensor 3 is moved from a predetermined position to the home position to detect a change from paper presence to paper absence. However, the sensor 3 may be moved from the home position to a predetermined position to detect a change from no paper to paper present.

Furthermore, the width of the recording paper may be determined by detecting both the left end and right end positions of the recording paper.

Further, in the above embodiment, the print format storage unit 4 stores print format data corresponding to three types of paper sizes, but the number of types of print format data is not limited to this. You can set it to .

[0020]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the printing format is automatically set by detecting the width of the recording paper, and the presence or absence of the recording paper is not determined during printing, thereby reducing the printing time. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

[Figure 1] Block diagram of main parts of printer

[Figure 2] Flowchart for explaining printing operation from intake to ejection of recording paper

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Sensor

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. After setting a printing area according to the length of the recording paper by detecting the width of the recording paper with a sensor, printing is executed in the set printing area,
A printing control method for a printer, characterized in that the paper is ejected after it is determined that printing is completed within the printing area.